Life Stories - Sharing Expertise and Experience

The Salzburg Global LGBT Forum collects and disseminates life stories that portray the rich realities of our lives today and share our diverse professional expertise. It is the sharing of stories and expertise rather than mere facts and figures that helps to galvanize our supporters and challenge our opponents.

As outlined in our 2013 Statement, we emphasize the value of exchange and storytelling as major tools of expressing of who we are and want to become. Increasingly, LGBT lives are portrayed in popular culture, often through the lens of heroism or victimhood to reach larger audiences. Still, in many countries, enforced silence and government-sponsored discrimination reject LGBT people as part of the human family. As the world becomes a global village, voices are amplified, including those that export homo-and transphobia.

In the short interviews below, members of the Global LGBT Forum share their expert knowledge and insights. The Global LGBT Forum will continue to cooperate with and magnify the work of writers, filmmakers and photographers as well as of community activists, legal experts, government representatives, and academics who reflect upon, portray and shape the complexities of our lives.